I’ve been stepping outside of my regular lameness lately and God is showing me new and exciting things.
I’m excited to be braving a small, part-time business venture in which I do what i love. Share.
I’ll be sharing my skateboarding skills and also the love and hope, peace and purpose I’ve recieved through Christ Jesus with any little kid who’s parents will pay me to do so!
Just kidding. Well actually that IS how it works…
*I have been blessed by the Lord to have a very large, expensive land to share the Gospel in now. It is a magnet for skateboarders. Ladies and Gents, i present to you… the PARKER PARK!
Skate Lesson with 2 new students at 2pm in Cherry Creek
Pick up homey & drive to Bday party
Host my very first Bday skate-themed party for ten+ 9yr-olds. Complete with skate lesson, skate session, pizza, cake, trampoline, and lots of filming.
Take homey downtown, then halfway back.
Drive to Highlands Ranch (35 minutes from downtown) for Smallgroup.
-First off, I’m totally one to complain.
Second, if you factor in a 1/2 hour for drivetime between each of these events… there’s no possible way i could’ve made it to every engagement on time if my life depended on it.
I’ve learned through Life Hurts God Heals that i should shed this dangerous need to please everyone. So today i had my tantrum in the car and prayed:
“Damn… Ahhhhh! Lord, how can i possibly accomplish everything that needs to be done today unless you show up? Will you take care of me in this?”
I just decided to not freak out and wait for God to do his thing and take care of his kid…AKA Me.
I will just give away the surprise and let you know that today i got home after every battle, adventure, party, trek, and meeting exhausted, yet utterly at peace and in awe. God heard my earnestly frustrated prayer and he showed up today.
HOW?
I’ve felt ignored, but today Mark played a song that i referred, in church- so it was encouraging to say the least that I could see that I’m not totally invisible.
I hate leadership meetings where Travis Says, “I’ll keep this short…” because what’s the point of showing up if it’s not worth more than 10 minutes of our time? However, P.A. and Trav encouraged us about small groups and the meeting was a stoking gathering for our team(s).
Since God is abundant, he also reaffirmed my validity by allowing me to lead a song in Catalyst that I’ve asked about for months. We rehearsed it at band practice after church and i was stoked!
I then booked it to my lesson and met some siblings, Sydney and Jack, who got stoked on skating and hired me for next week to do another lesson. Praise God!
Picked up my longtime friend Casey, who assisted me with my Birthday party by filming it so we could make a memorable DVD for the family. Casey and I had lots of fun with all those little guys and he told me that he felt really welcomed and loved by the parents and kids. He mentioned, “I forgot what it’s like to be a little kid. To be so stoked and no nothing about skating. It’s like we’re giving back to the next generation of skaters and I would have loved this birthday party when i was nine.”
I took Casey home and then BOOKED It to smallgroup an hour late… only to find a welcoming family when i really expected to be resented because of my tardiness.Isn’t the body of Christ fabulous sometimes? Extending God’s unending love to me when i feel so undeserving of it.
Arriving home after chilling with Nate and Marlon and the girls from Aegis, our group my mommy and I got to recap my last few days and it’s always wonderful when she lovingly listens to every loose thought in my head. She’s a great listener and an encouraging source of strength and direction in my life. I’m taken aback by God’s plan. He put me in her womb, and He’ll take me to my tomb.
I NEVER journal, even though I live a life so highly blessed with FAVOR and purpose. It’s lame how I take God’s gifts for granted, so I’m just thankful that the LORD inspired me to recap this stupendous day, despite my regular habit of avoiding such a glorious activity. Now i can look back and say to myself or others,
“God has not walked away. In fact, He’s stepped into my world and stirred things up with his great love.”
Lies i’ve heard today that sounded too true to argue:
You’re a piece of shit.
You are a waste of space.
What good are you?
Your dreams aren’t attainable.
God’s not on your side.
You’re a foolish child with no capability for responsibility.
Truths today that I must cling to:
2 Corinthians 12:9
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
God values what he’s bought. Jesus paid a great price because I am of great value (for some reason…) to him.
Triumph and Disaster are only impostors. I will never fully triumph and graduate life until i am taken home to Heaven, and there is no true disaster that can befall me because i’m in the winning army.
This is the “Bible Bowl” Tuesday night 20 of us were blessed and priviledged enough to take 6 hours and SHRED this beauty together. Pastor Jay Haizlip, Jud Heald (Pro and owner of Untitled Skateboards), Tom Geilfuss (Untitled Amateur), Julie ? (16yr old professional female skateboarder who’s Dad owns the Bible bowl), and a few other gutsy skaters really stood out during the session. Bowls like this are much different from skateparks because they have pool coping (instead of steel rails at the top) to grind, which is much rougher and takes more power and precision to successfully traverse.
The Vibe at the Bible Bowl was just exponentially exciting and everyone supported eachother and cheered eachother on all night. When i asked the local skater, Pastor Jay, if the neighbors minded all the noise we were making, he calmly replied with a grin, “It sounds better than gunshots…”
All the skaters attending the session were also those who spent Sept 1,2,3 at The Sanctuary Church in Huntington Beach, CA for the second annual Skaters Conference hosted by Christian Skaters International Ministry.
I got to, among other things, attend an art show that featured art by christian skaters such as one of my earthly heros Brian sumner, Christian Hosoi, Tom Geilfuss, Lance Mountain, and many others. At the show, Pro skater Josh Harmony (Toy Machine, Fallen, RVCA) played original folk songs and covers that were all about his faith in Christ.Another band showed up and it included 3 burly men with full body tattoos including naked women, vulgar words, gang affiliation symbols, etc… Basically they were the last people you’d want to squirt your soda through your nose at if you were laughing at the lunchtable in prison. They’d all been to prison… literally. But they were the nicest people in the gallery and they played really loud punk worship until the police came to quiet them down. I couldn’t help but clap, pump my fist and dance and giggle with these body building burly worshippers who were nothing but smiles and raw punk rock for Jesus.
After the conference, I rode home with Mark, my NFCDFL (Ninjas For Christ, Down For Life) and Derrick (Skateponderosa.blogspot.com) Unrein who runs a ministry in Monument CO. We ate In-N-Out , drove 17 hours straight, worshipped, did bible studies on Isaiah, discussed the conference, laughed about all of Marks crazy stories and slept.
BACK FROM CALI, I’m now in Pueblo, it’s 4:12am-(Switchfoot has a song about this) and at 11am tomorrow we (Uriel, Riley and I) will do an all day skate demo for the Pueblo West Highschool Back to School Event. God tossed some incredible blessings right into our laps and we now have an updated and upgraded skatepark to use for our shows…
Check out Call To Glory, Alexander, and the Uprising… next blog.
I’m so blessed that the Father let me live another year to attend this event. (Or so i hope, there’s still an 18 hour drive ahead of me before Huntington beach on monday. haha.)
I get to go with my brothers, Mark, Derrick, and Uriel. We’ll be shredding skateparks along the way and slaying some In-N-Out whenever possible!
road trips are so fun= uninterrupted worship sessions for hours, or listening parties for entire albums, or peaceful quiet times while everyone sleeps and you drive…
any way i look at it, i’m overjoyed to go!
my bday present was the registration fee for the conference, so i got some new skate shoes today with my gift card to Zumiez, so i might have just also bought my 3rd pair of white jeans…
I leave in a few hours so pray for me until saturday when i return to do a demo in Pueblo!
Godspeed to me, and Godsteeze to you!
(Philwickham.com has a free download of an entire live album that is Spunktunctious! jjheller.com has a folky free album at jjheller.com too! YAY for you!)
Today i was going to pueblo with Uriel and Riley… we’re going to take our ramps and do demos for a back to school event somewhere in Pueblo. I love pueblo… it’s not super far of a drive, there are TONS of spots down there that are rad for filming skating and I just plain love exploring new cities. The kids down there love talking/skating with visitors too. We were gonna skate and then preach… BUT the area we were gonna skate at is flooded right now, so it will be rescheduled for later!
LIFE UPDATES:
My ipod just died after 2 faithful years of service… Pillow the Penguin needs repair or replacement… Sad day.
Casey and I Have been talking lots and skating and it’s been nice to spend more time around each other. Highschool was great because we were always up to something. Last night we went to Denver skatepark and played full throttle ultimate death TAG. We only ran into a few other people on accident, and otherwise, that is my favorite way to tire myself out!
JJ Heller Just gave away hernew albumfor free today!!!
Ladies especially will love this album, and I have already admitted to loving chick-flicks and chocolate… so i love it unashamedly.
SO INSTEAD OF GOING TO PUEBLO, who wants to road trip with me to Steamboat Springs for the Porn and Pancakes Breakfast?
My friend Buck Chavarria and his wife Tara run a skate church up there and have seen God change an entire community through their faithful commitment to love the youth of Steamboat.
So seeing that the community is enveloped in a culture of drugs, alchohol and abuse, Buck decided to have XXXchurch.com come to town and educate the community on the serious issues of porn! YAY.
$8 pays for the porn pastor and the pancakes… if you carpool with me we can save $$$ on Gas. Any takers call me or myspace me before 445am saturday.
Our College Bible Study leader Aaron scheduled us all to go downtown in Denver and hand out Hamburgers and water to the homeless and pray for them last night.
We did. We met a few fun characters and people with really injured lives. To Chrissy’s surprise, the filthy giant black brother with the big smile didn’t mind that she’d already drunk half of the starbucks I offered him. He was stoked for more than water i suppose.
We met one dude who refused prayer then right as we walked away started firing off all kinds of prayers in tongues! That surprised me and I thought to myself… Oh yeah, people can be warriors for the Lord and live in the park downtown.
After another interaction between a few of us and a brother named Marcus, who played the guitar with passion and power at the foot of one of the tallest buildings in Denver,
we all regrouped and agreed that God used our little naive suburban church group to extend his provision, and His care to some fellow Earth-dwellers who may have been covered in dirt, but were no less loved in God’s eyes than us.
Right when everyone split up, i went to 7Eleven for some snackage and upon exiting the thriving convenient store, God blessed me with the highlight of the night. I was standing with some friends, and saw a girl my age with pink hair and some ragged garments frantically running to each trash can, peeking inside, and then scurrying a little more desperately to the next.
Hands full of food, i immediately ditched my compadres and skated after her.
Her name is Britney and she’s a 21 year old mommy from West VA. Her boyfriend waited a few blocks up the street with their little one named Miles. Miles is 2 years old and was born while their group was train hopping across the country.
Covered in dust and all unshaven, this family let me stay and talk with them for the next 4 hours. I was blessed for once to have enough money to buy us all some food, so we sat and talked/ate/played and skated with little Miles for a while and God broke my heart for them.
There’s a line in the Hillsong United’s tune Hosanna that begs “Break my heart for what breaks Yours.”
My Abba Father reminded me of how much I do have.
Nights like those are the ones that prove to me that God answers prayer and has a bigger scope of vision than I do. His viewpoint takes simple things like talking to someone with nothing, and using that encounter to make the largest impact on our lives.
Heaven Fest is part of a movement of people that have a thirst for the presence of God and a hunger to see revival come to the Rocky Mountain region. This movement goes way beyond this one-day event and continues all through the year as people answer the call and begin to pray for God’s will on earth, just as it is in Heaven. As people begin to get on their knees to pray and seek the face of Lord, humbling themselves, and turning from their wicked lifestyle. “We pray Lord that you would heal our land, heal our cities and heal our states.”
I have a very important birth anniversary coming up on the 30th of July.
I will be honest. I have researched and if anyone feels compelled here’s my list!
Koala Cookies!
I used to eat these when i was a young lad and haven’t tasted of their chocolate-ey yumminess in about 15 years. Someone, anyone! Re-introduce me to my tasty friends!
What is a birthday other than an awesome excuse to be blessed with your heart’s desires?
I’m gonna do some skate shows with Uriel, my buddy from my skate team at the festival!
It’s free for non christians, and admission for believers is whatever you can afford… CAN YOU BEAT THAT?
I have lots on my mind:
Bridget, (and any other FEMALES that breathe for that matter) HERE’s the link for the lyrics to a song that blew me away the other day. I’m an advocate for Purity, Prudence, and Holiness, and The Cross Movement’s own Ambassador wrote a song called “Body Talk” that talks all about the way girls dress and what they should be doing. It’s great. Download it off itunes if you can. Support the man. Here’s their description: “If there is one sin that is prominent in Hip-Hop it is immorality. Guys are usually reprimanded for their role in this, but this song addresses the ladies and their contributions to this vice. The song cautions them to consider how their abuse of freedom of expression can lead to the down fall of men who do not want to view them as sex objects. It is a light slap on the wrist for the promiscuous woman and an exhortation to females in general to remain pure and modest—role models for the current and future generations.”
Another thing on my mind is this: God is Gunnin for ya! He is seeking you out and tryin to trap you in his wonderous love.
I’ve entered the Way Of the Warriors Contest. Wayofthewarriors.com
Showbread was obnoxious… but they’re supposed to be.
They did what I had hoped and brought some TVs to project images of the stories of Anorexia and Nervosa. Then they started on the right track and put lyrics on the TVs that were in sync with the music they played… but they only did it for 2 songs…
Why don’t more bands make use of Steve Jobs’ Awesomeness and bring AppleTVs with them to help you understand what they’ve created…
Most venues have less than stellar sound or sound guys, but if you have lyrics and a performance and volume within an atmosphere… how much more clearly can you make a memory?
Animal (Another Fellow Skateboarder on Untitled) and i jammed the show, then went to bed, then woke up at Nate G’s home… then watched his 2 yr old son pop n Lock along with this dude on So you Think you can Dance?
- Now i must say that this show is like Tv’s Crack. It’s got incredible feats of artistry, skillful execution of detailed maneuvers, chemistry and romantic vibes and competition, action, and comedy (See auditions episodes with people who think they CAN dance…
Not to mention the sexual appeal of thousands of scantily clad toned and built bods…
Too bad i can’t really watch much of the show without the distraction of the modern saleslady miss SExY.
_SO readers, tell me how “Sex Sells” has interrupted some otherwise very lovely things.
The trip with Untitled (My board sponsor) has been good. When i was out here last summer, i had a rough time getting along with everyone, but this has been better.
We went to do a demo in iowa last saturday, and have been working today on the new team building in the back of Jud’s house. Animal and i get along well and we bolted 250ish bolts in the building’s ceiling today in the hot sun. FUN FUN FUN. Power tools, crazy fools and no rules. booyah.
Heading up to Kansas City for the showbread show tonight, and then to Pennsylvania on thursday for a demo with TOM GEILFUSS! He’s badical. Check out the extras page on the untitled site for gnar pics of the dude.
Love you all. Leave me some love via myspace, facebook, comments here, or go to my house and walk my 15yr old dog!
Over 2 Weeks in 3 of the largest cities in Jamaica: Montego Bay, Mandeville and Kingston- We built. We set up. We rode. We spoke about the Gospel and humanity’s need for the Savior. They laughed when we fell. They called our tricks “Stunts.” We had skateboards, BMX, and Motocross- which they went super crazy for. The arial photo is of the festival early in the afternoon, and the night shot was of 50-70,000 people who showed up for the message and DJ NICHOLAS. The dude is super popular there and Jamaicans know how to dance, sing and praise with no reserve. Luis Palau gave an in depth invitation to come home to Jesus if you’ve strayed into the world like the prodigal son. The artist Prodigal Son was there too, and he was just as popular as DJ Nicholas.
Just kidding. Well actually that IS how it works…
Posted by obedientson 
Posted by obedientson 
Posted by obedientson 
, Christian Hosoi, Tom Geilfuss, Lance Mountain, and many others. At the show, Pro skater Josh Harmony (Toy Machine, Fallen, RVCA) played original folk songs and covers that were all about his faith in Christ.
, drove 17 hours straight, worshipped, did bible studies on Isaiah, discussed the conference, laughed about all of Marks crazy stories and slept.
we all regrouped and agreed that God used our little naive suburban church group to extend his provision, and His care to some fellow Earth-dwellers who may have been covered in dirt, but were no less loved in God’s eyes than us. 
Over 2 Weeks in 3 of the largest cities in Jamaica: Montego Bay, Mandeville and Kingston- We built. We set up. We rode. We spoke about the Gospel and humanity’s need for the Savior. They laughed when we fell. They called our tricks “Stunts.” We had skateboards, BMX, and Motocross- which they went super crazy for. The arial photo is of the festival early in the afternoon, and the night shot was of 50-70,000 people who showed up for the message and DJ NICHOLAS. The dude is super popular there and Jamaicans know how to dance, sing and praise with no reserve. Luis Palau gave an in depth invitation to come home to Jesus if you’ve strayed into the world like the prodigal son. The artist Prodigal Son was there too, and he was just as popular as DJ Nicholas. 
